10 New Shows That'll Have Us Glued To Our TVs In 2024!

We’ve talked about the music and film that we’re excited about in 2024, so it only makes sense to top it off with the small-screen goings-on of the year, as we approach the end of the year’s first quarter (it’s already going quick, right?!)

There are several fantastic series set to return this year, including the Emmy-award-winning The Bear returning for its third season, House of the Dragon for its second, and The Boys for its fourth. For this list though, let’s look at brand-new stories that will be gracing our television sets in 2024.

Mary & George- March 5th

This seven-part limited series is based on the non-fiction book The King’s Assassin, which is about the alleged affair between James VI and I and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham during the 1500s. Utterly scandalous! The affair came about when Mary Villiers, mother of George and portrayed in the series by Julianne Moore, moulded her son to seduce King James VI so that the pair could scheme their way to the top. Sounds very juicy indeed! Also starring Nicholas Galitzine following his role in Red, White & Royal Blue and Tony Curran, who you might recognise from the MCU.

Apples Never Fall- UK TBC (US March 14^th)

What looks like a perfect American family who are a bit obsessed with tennis get served up a bit of a twist (serve) when their matriarch disappears. Aren’t television mothers having a great time this year? Like a tennis ball, the question of “What happened to mum” gets bounced around perhaps resulting in a bit of a round-robin situation and it’ll be interesting to see whose court it lands in (is that enough tennis puns?) Based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, it’s the fifth of her books to be adapted to the screen and the fourth to television, Apples Never Fall stars Annette Benning in her first television role since appearing on an episode of The Sopranos in 2004. Also starring are Sam Neill (Peaky Blinders), Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) and Jake Lacy (The Office).

Palm Royale- March 20th

Palm Royale follows a woman named Maxine as she attempts to break into the high society of Palm Beach in 1969. I mean who doesn’t wanna be invited to the cool kids table? And in the late sixties too?! So if you’re yearning for more stylish shows with ponchos, moccasins, and polka dots, this might be your next favourite show! It begs a question that is always gonna be relevant amongst the more jealous of you out there: How far are you willing to go to get something that somebody else has?  Loosely based on the novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. The series is led and produced by Kristen Wiig and features an absolutely packed star-studded ensemble cast! Seriously, check this out: Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Amber Chardae Robinson, Mindy Cohn, Julia Duffy and Kaia Gerber, with guest stars Bruce Dern and the multi-award-winning icon that is Carol Burnett. 

3 Body Problem- March 21st

Also taking place in the 60s but across the world and as we are on our Dune high, along comes another sci-fi adaptation of a bestselling novel. By Chinese author Liu Cixin, the epic series of books feature multiple timelines and alien civilizations, telling the story of an astrophysicist who, after seeing her father brutally murdered is forced into the military and sent to a secret base. There, the decisions she makes in the present (the 1960s, in this case) also affect the past and future. How stressful is that?! The novel became the first Asian novel to be awarded the Hugo award for Best Novel, and a Chinese adaptation hit its native screens to critical acclaim in 2023. Now the English-language series looks to replicate that success with showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, who co-created Game of Thrones. It will star Benedict Wong (Spider-Man, Doctor Strange), Jovan Apedo (Fences, Overlord) along with Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean, Game of Thrones) and Liam Cunnigham (Game of Thrones).

The Regime- April (US March 3^rd)

What a pairing this is- filmic icon Kate Winslet and HBO, and one that you’ll be able to watch this week! Starting on March 3^rd, The Regime is a political miniseries created by Will Tracy (Succession, The Menu) that is more in the vein of Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin rather than Madam Secretary. Winslet is outrageous Chancellor Elena Vernham somewhere in “Central Europe.” The Chancellor makes it clear that she is “very much not ridiculous” as the tells her team that they need to be better at “being normal” so that she also feels normal, as her people are suffering hunger and unemployment. An early contender for the next award season, this satirical comedy looks like it’ll be hilarious and perhaps even close to home.

Fallout- April 12^th

Video game adaptations are seeing quite the resurgence as of late. For years, video games translated to the screen were a sure set-up for disaster. From Street Fighter and Max Payne to Mortal Kombat and Assassin’s Creed, the track record is, well, bad. Recently, however, adaptations of our favourite button-mashing entertainment have been finding success on the small screen. Whether it’s the time that a series allows as opposed to movies for things to really be fleshed out or the actual following of the source material, the recent success of HBO’s The Last of Us is changing how we think about game-to-screen stories. The latest to join the hype-train is the similarly themed post-apocalyptic, but vastly different Fallout. Taking place in alternate history where advances in nuclear technology after World War II led to a retrofuturistic society and resource war, humans have taken shelter in bunkers known as vaults for centuries. The series follows a woman who emerges and ventures out into the hostile Wasteland of Los Angeles. Whilst this will be an original story and so not a case of sitting on your coach gleefully reciting the dialogue as it's being said like the Last of Us, it will be canon to the games, so you can expect a faithful adaptation. The series is by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and produced by the multi-award-nominated duo of Lisa Joy (Westworld) and Jonathan Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight), and will star Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins.

The Sympathizer- UK TBC (US April 14^th)

Also based on a book, this miniseries is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen. It tells the story of the Captain- a North Vietnam plant in the South Vietnam arm, who is forced to flee to the United States towards the end of the Vietnam War. He continues to secretly spy on the community of South Vietnamese refugees and report back, conflicted between his original loyalties and his new life. An intriguing story but what’s even more exciting is that it's helmed by A24 and South Korean legend Park Chan-wook, who made history when his film Parasite became the first film to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and Genie Award-winner Don McKeller. It will star the multi-award-nominated Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr., whose performance of multiple characters has several parts reportedly improvised.

Presumed Innocent- June 14^th

Lots of novels are being adapted to the screen this year! Yet another is Presumed Innocent, a 1987 story by Scott Turow about a prosecutor who becomes a prime suspect in the murder of one of his colleagues. It is the second screen adaptation of the novel, with a film starring Harrison Ford in 1990. Taking on the role of said prosecutor and suspect Rusty Sabich this time is Jake Gyllenhall. This marks the first that the multi-award nominated actor will lead a series on television, continuing in his specialty of playing morally ambiguous characters who do questionable things. We’ll have to wait and see if he will in fact be The Guilty (see what I did there?). J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is serving as executive producer, and the series was created by David E. Kelley.

The Penguin- Late 2024

Expanding on Matt Reeve’s 2022 The Batman with Robert Pattinson in the cowl, The Penguin follows Colin Farrel’s Oswald Cobblepot one week after the events of the film although simultaneously acting as a standalone story, establishing a "little fabric" for the sequel. Gotham is flooded, and Oz begins his descent to the top of the criminal underworld. Farrell commented that is makes for a "very tricky, very dark story," calling the first episode “tasty and unusual.” Reeve’s 2022 film took its inspiration from mystery thrillers such as Se7en, Manhunter and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. For The Penguin, producer Dylan Clark compared the series to 1983’s iconic gangster film Scarface starring Al Pacino, as well as citing British gangster flick The Long Good Friday (1980) as inspiration.

Dune: Prophecy- Late 2024

Dune: Part Two is out today! If you find yourself itching for more of Frank Herbert’s epic world then you won’t have to wait too long! Whilst we don’t know much about this expansion of Denis Villeneuve’s movie adaptations, we do know that it’s set 10,000 years before the events of the 1965 novel and will cover the origins of sectarian sisterhood, the Bene Gesserit. The series will star Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Jodhi May, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as well as Travis Fimmel (Vikings) and Mark Strong.